I've just scoffed a lovely meal of mushroom pasta, potato salad, watercress, and iceberg lettuce, all out of date yesterday.

I did the yellow sticker dash last night at my fave supermarket. I got £25 worth of food for £6.20. My fridge is now full, it will last me almost two weeks. Shopping late is the key, after they have put the third and final sticker on, giving 75% off. Have a mooch round your nearest supermarket after 6pm to find out when the reductions come out.

I bought four carton of Princes fruit juice the other day, 25p each. Out of date in February. I dilute it with 75% water so I get more drinks out of it. Also got some small jars of Heinz mayo for 20p each, out of date but fine. In fact quite tasty and creamy. All this out of date food is not doing me any harm, I'm still alive. and my emergency fund is getting bigger.

This food is out of date today, it wasn't last night when I bought it.

I spent two hours at the BIG supermarket waiting for the staff to put the final yellow sticker on it. A few others were waiting, but there was plenty for all. I got £76 worth of food for £9. Worth the wait. I gave some of it to my neighbours, one of them did a swap and gave me some broccoli and leeks. We help each other round here.

It will last me a couple of weeks. Some of the veg will be cooked into a stew, and frozen into portions. I will eat the soft fruit first, and anything that is likely to go off sooner rather than later. A lot of it will still be fine to eat in a weeks time.

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)✰(¸.✰´¨(¸.✰ Manda Living our version of the Good Life with 4 dogs, 6 cats, a cow, a few sheep, Angora Goats and ???? chooks.Don't get your knickers in a knot..it solves nothing ~ just makes you walk funny

Another neighbour did a swap, I gave her a pack of donuts and some potatoes, she gave me some onions. I like this swapping lark.

I made a big pan of stew with two packs of prepared butternut squash, half a pack of sliced mushrooms, and a tub of ready chopped onions. Total cost 40p for four portions now in the freezer. Two sliced loaves and two packs of hot cross buns, and a punnet of strawberries also in the freezer.

Plenty of fruit for my breakfast, ploughing through the salady stuff, it will last me another week or more. I keep inspecting it to make sure I use the food that will go off the soonest, first.

Went up to the village for a folk evening and popped into local co-op on the way back to the car (without a bag as I only wanted milk). Ended up with my arms full of small wholemeal bloomers 'still fresh' reduced (don't know who they thought they sell them to at £1.75, but OK at 44p). Now in my freezer.

Good find, Mo. Some of the real prices are ridiculous, I am amazed at what people will pay for their shopping. One idea to gauge the value of something is to work out how many hours you would have to work to earn enough money to pay for it. It makes sense to get the cost of food shopping down as low as you can so you don't have to work long hours to pay for it.

Say a monthly family shop is £200 normal price. I don't know what the hourly rate is these days, but say at a guess £10 an hour. So, you would have to work 20 hours to make enough money for a months food. Cut that down to £100 and work for 10 hours.

Everything we buy has a trade off value, not only in money, but also in time. Luckily I am able to manage very well on my pension. The reduced out of date food helps, if I paid full price I wouldn't be able to afford my car.

I was watching a program the other day from the UK ...Eat well for less...I was horrified at what some of these people are doing. One woman would throw food out on the date...have people become so unable to think for themselves they can't look past a date and see food is OK? It doesn't seem like we're evolving as a species, rather getting thicker!

I want to watch a show that will teach me something...and the episode I saw the other day just seemed to dumb people down....I may have to watch another one to see if I'm being unfair but I was disappointed - they're just trotting out the same old tripe...and nothing changes.I wonder why schools don't bring back some basic things because it seems from programs like this the basics are severely lacking and having a huge impact in the future.

I agree with the how long do you have to work to earn the money to buy things...it's a good benchmark for everything.

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)✰(¸.✰´¨(¸.✰ Manda Living our version of the Good Life with 4 dogs, 6 cats, a cow, a few sheep, Angora Goats and ???? chooks.Don't get your knickers in a knot..it solves nothing ~ just makes you walk funny